Keep your camera up

Late last year some Bellingen photographers and I got out into the rainforest to prepare for the January Snapped theme.

Taking photos in a rainforest can be challenging, particularly when it's a hot, sunny day. The contrast between the light and shade are extreme.

You do get some lovely pockets of light that will highlight spots, but when the summer is hot and the sun is strong, those patches of light can easily over saturate.

Ronnie, Colin, Karen, Louis and I headed out into the Dorrigo Rainforest a few weeks ago to face the challenge head on, and snap some images looking right up into that strong light.

Even if no great photos came out of the day, it would have been worth the visit just to get down into the forest.

Dorrigo is a particularly lovely rainforest, it's world heritage listed and well worth the challenging drive up and down the mountain to be in.

I felt pretty safe we'd get some good shots though.

Ronnie, Colin and Karen have been part of ABC Open projects before. They have all contributed to Your Best, you can see there images here.

Louis was with me as part of work experience. He'd had a chance to be part of a couple of film shoots, and a few workshops. This was his chance to get a go on the equipment and be part of a project first hand.

Ideally, to deal with the light contrast, we would have headed to Dorrigo at about 7am. We didn't though, we met there at 9 and didn't really get down into the forest until about 10. That mountain drive is a bit of a challenge at the best of times, I don't think I would like to drive it at dawn.

The forest was showing the signs of a dry spring, it was crunchier and drier than I have ever seen it. We weren't showing it at its best.

Still, despite the shortage on funghi and the light challenges, some excellent images were captured.